concentrated doses of high-energy particles target the cancerous tissue... killing malignant cells, and stopping their spread. healthy tissues nearby receive only slight doses of radiation, and generally recover quickly. this is particularly true when proton therapy is used. because the stream of positively-charged, subatomic particles can be focused more precisely, there is little damage to surrounding cells. still another approach is to implant tiny radioactive beads within the malignant tissue for several weeks, and then remove them. compared to chemo, everyone sort of feels that radiation is a walk in the park and most of the time, that's true. i found radiation was a pain in the butt because you have to go to the hospital every day, five days a week. you have to go down there, it really doesn't take very long but if somebody's late, if the machine has to cool down, so you can't really gauge your time. it made me really tired, and it... for me, i got a third degree burn underneath my breast where i guess one or two beams intersected. i had an open wound.